“A War Was Raging 15 Feet above Our Heads”
Arkansas during the First World War
Social Studies – 6 – 8 (U.S. History, Arkansas History, World History, Civics, etc.);
English Language Arts; Geography
This unit explores World War I in Arkansas through the use of primary and secondary sources. Students
will read newspaper articles and pamphlet excerpts to understand the impact that World War I had on
Arkansas. A list of various activities related to original primary and secondary resources allows teachers
the flexibility to choose parts of this lesson plan to use and adapt as needed.
Essential Question:
How did the United States entering into the First World War affect Arkansas?
Common Core State Standards:
CCRA.R.1, 3, 7; CCRA.W.7, 9; CCRA.SL.1, 2, 4; CCRA.R.1, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9; CCRA.W.2, 7, 8. 9; CCRA.SL.1, 3, 4;
CCRA.R.1, 4, 7; CCRA.SL.1, 3; CCRA.W.7, 8, 9; CCRA.SL.1, 3; CCRA.R.1, 7, 8; CCRA.W.8; CCRA.SL.2;
CCRA.W.1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9
Arkansas Department of Education Curriculum Frameworks:
H.7.AH.7-8.6; Era4.4.AH.9-12.4, Era.7.1.USH.2; Era.7.1.USH.3; Era7.1.USH.4; Era7.1.USH.5; Era.7.1.USH6;
Era7.1.USH.7
C3 Alignment:
D2.His.1, 4, 14, 15, 16.6-8; D2.Civ.14.9-12; D2.Geo.4.9-12; D2.His.1, 14.9-12; D2.His.1, 7, 14, 15, 16.9-12;
D2.Civ.10.9-12; D2.Geo.2.9-12; D2.His.1, 7, 11.9-12; D2.Civ.13, 14,.9-12; D2.Geo.2.9-12; D2.His.2, 3, 6, 7.912; D2.His.9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 17.9-12; D2.Civ.11, 13.9-12; D2.His.14.9-12; D1.5.9-12; D2.His.3, 9, 10, 11, 12,
13.9-12; D3.1, 3, 4.9-12; D4.1, 2.9-12
Possible literature resources related to the lesson plan: All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria
Remarque (1929); A Very Long Engagement by Sébastien Japrisot (1994); Fear: A Novel of World War I by
Gabriel Chevallier (1930); One of Ours by Willa Cather (1922); Three Soldiers by John Dos Passos (1921);
Pictures, 1918 by Jeanette Ingold (1998); The Return of the Soldier by Rebecca West (1916); Goodbye to
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This lesson is funded in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council
All of That by Robert Graves (1929); Remembrance by Theresa Breslin (2002); Khaki Wings by Milton Dank
(1980); Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo (2003); War Horse by Michael Morpurgo (2007).
RESOURCES ON WORLD WAR I
"Liet. Paul Remmel Writes of His Training Under Fire," Arkansas Gazette, December 14, 1917
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16790coll11/id/438
"No Segregation in Training of Soldiers," Arkansas Gazette, August 18, 1917
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16790coll11/id/440
"German Editor is Ordered Interned," Arkansas Gazette, August 22, 1917
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16790coll11/id/439
Letter from A.B. Fairfield to Wallace Townsend of the State Council of Defense discussing labor problems
at cotton farms, October 23, 1918.
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16790coll11/id/424
Letter from Benjamin Franklin Clark to Flora Hamilton about life in Camp Pike, April 25, 1918.
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16790coll11/id/421
Letter from Jasper Harrell Burke to his mother about life in Camp Pike, December 27, 1917.
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16790coll11/id/415
Letter from Jasper Harrell Burke to his mother about France, September 28, 1918.
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16790coll11/id/453
Letter from Jasper Harrell Burke to his mother about the Armistice, November 13, 1918.
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16790coll11/id/468
Alien Enemy Registration form for Ernestine Hardke page, June 26, 1918.
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16790coll11/id/407
"Governor Signs Patriotic Pledge," Arkansas Gazette, September 30, 1917
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16790coll11/id/437
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This lesson is funded in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council
National Committee for Patriotic Societies Posters Pamphlet about how to create effective wartime
propaganda, 1918.
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16790coll11/id/434
"Sedition Bill is Passed by Senate," Arkansas Gazette, May 5, 1918
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16790coll11/id/435
"Education Urged as Patriotic Duty," Conway Log Cabin Democrat, May 17, 1917
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16790coll11/id/436
“Lieut. Smith Now on ‘Special Duty,’” Conway Log Cabin Democrat, April 29, 1918
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16790coll11/id/469
“Cheering Note from a Faulkner Soldier,” Conway Log Cabin Democrat, May 14, 1918
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16790coll11/id/471
“Writes of Soldiers’ Life at Camp Pike,” Conway Log Cabin Democrat, June 11, 1918
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/singleitem/collection/p16790coll11/id/470
Songs We Like to Sing, Young Men’s Christian Association, 1918
http://ahc.digital-ar.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p16790coll11/id/460
Arkansas in World War I Vocabulary
American Expeditionary
Forces
Herman Davis
Propaganda
State Council of Defense
Charles H. Brough
Camp Pike
Eberts Field
Sedition
Spanish Influenza
Fort Logan H. Roots
Selective Service Act of 1917
Woodrow Wilson
American Expeditionary Forces – The name of the American forces fighting in Europe under the command
of General John J. Pershing.
Charles H. Brough – Twenty-fifth Governor of Arkansas (January 10, 1917 – January 11, 1921). Was
governor at the time of the First World War.
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This lesson is funded in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council
Camp Pike – Training camp for soldiers in Arkansas. It is in Pulaski County near the present day site of
Camp Robinson.
Herman Davis – Farmer from Manila in Mississippi County who served in France. He was awarded the
Croix de Guerre for bravery in combat and was named by General Pershing as one of the most important
soldiers to the war effort.
Eberts Field –Training ground in Lonoke, Arkansas, for pilots during World War I.
Fort Logan H. Roots –Training site in Pulaski County since the late 1800s, which served as a training site
during the early stages of the United States’ involvement in the war before Camp Pike was fully
constructed.
Propaganda – Information used to promote an idea or action. Often can contain false or misleading
information to sway opinion about an action or idea.
Sedition – Rebellion against the government.
Selective Service Act of 1917 –Law passed by the United States to establish a draft in order to raise an
army for World War I. The law required all men from the age of 18 to 45 to register for the draft.
Spanish Influenza – A world-wide pandemic that killed approximately 50 to 100 million people. More
soldiers died from the Spanish Flu than from wounds in battle.
State Council of Defense – Organization set up on the state level to compliment the national Council of
Defense. Its job was to coordinate the war effort in Arkansas. Among its many duties were to promote
war bonds and coordinate food rationing programs. There were Council of Defense organizations on the
county and community levels as well.
Woodrow Wilson – President of the United States (1913-1921) at the time of World War I.
Background Information:
When the United States entered into World War I, the war had already been raging in Europe for three
long years. So, it was incumbent on the country to ready itself for war quickly. The United States Army
established a training camp near Little Rock. Officials named it Camp Pike after the man who explored
the southwestern portion of the Louisiana Purchase, General Zebulon Pike. Officials also established an
airplane training camp in Lonoke County, Eberts Field, for the training of pilots. Soldiers entering Camp
Pike in the spring of 1917 would find that the camp was still under construction. Soldiers often had to
sleep outside on cots because constructions crews had not yet finished the barracks at Camp Pike.
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This lesson is funded in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council
The United States government passed the Selective Service Act of 1917 on May 18, 1917. The law required
all men aged 18 to 45 to register for the draft. Draft officials set June 5, 1917, as the official day for all
draft age men to register. Governor Charles Hillman Brough encouraged all local businesses to close for
the day to give the day a holiday atmosphere. Towns across Arkansas held patriotic parades and guest
speakers extolled the patriotism of those who were registering for the draft. Governor Brough declared
in a proclamation that the “day has come when America is privileged to spend her blood, her money and
her might for the principles that gave her birth.” By the end of the war, 199,857 Arkansas men registered
for the draft.
There was a dark side to the festivities, however. In the nineteenth century, German immigrants flooded
into the United States, many fleeing persecution of Catholics in their home country. At the beginning of
the war, Arkansas’s German population came under special scrutiny. Rumors about German spies in the
United States caused alarm. The United States government ordered Germans who had not been
naturalized to register with the state. Those who were not registered were not allowed to go near train
tracks or any boat or watercraft. Furthermore, new restrictions prohibited unregistered Germans from
going into the city of Little Rock without a permit. Other Arkansans of German descent also came under
scrutiny. Little Rock police arrested the editor of the German language newspaper in the city, Staats
Zeitung, for possibly publishing pro-German propaganda in his paper and urging draft resistance. Many
schools throughout the state eliminated German language programs and removed books about German
history and culture from their libraries.
There were also pockets of antiwar sentiment in Arkansas. In Cleburne County, a number of Jehovah’s
Witnesses refused to register for the draft. Police went to arrest the men who were gathered near Heber
Springs. The draft resisters got into a gun fight with police, leaving one policeman dead and one of the
resisters badly wounded. The Jehovah’s Witnesses fled into the countryside as a posse quickly assembled
in the county to hunt them. After a week, the standoff ended when the resisters surrendered. A jury only
found one of the resisters guilty of second degree murder in the death of the police officer, and the leader
of the group was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
Armies on both sides of the battlefield used new technologies that had not been seen before in battle.
Among the new weapons was the machine gun, capable of shooting 400 to 600 rounds a minute. The use
of poison gas, tanks, and airplanes, made this war the most deadly that the world had seen to this point.
Since the United States entered into the war relatively late – the war would be over in a year and a half –
there were few American battle casualties from the war. Far more devastating to American soldiers was
the spread of the Spanish Influenza epidemic. The Spanish Flu was a worldwide pandemic that is
estimated to have killed as many as 100 million people worldwide. American soldiers were not immune
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This lesson is funded in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council
from the flu. In fact, far more American soldiers died from the Spanish Flu than were killed in battle. In
Arkansas, officials quarantined soldiers training at Camp Pike. Those who had contracted the illness were
segregated from other soldiers. All social activities such as dances or social meetings were cancelled for
fear that such gatherings would spread the flu throughout the camp.
Arkansas sent 71,862 men to Europe during the war. Out of this group, Arkansas produced a number of
war-time heroes. The most famous was Herman Davis of Manila in Mississippi County. Davis entered into
the army in March 1918 and was sent to France in October 1918. During the Meuse-Argonne Offensive,
Davis killed two German machine gunners who had pinned down his unit. His marksmanship allowed his
unit to advance safely on the battlefield. For his bravery, the French government awarded him with the
Croix de Guerre and the United States government awarded him the Distinctive Service Cross. After the
war, General John Pershing, commander of the American forces in France, named Davis in a list of the
most important American soldiers in the war. Davis died young in 1923, having developed tuberculosis
as a possible result of lung damage he received in a poison gas attack during the war.
To learn more about Arkansas and World War I, read the following Encyclopedia of Arkansas History and
Culture articles:
World War I
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?search=1&entryID=2401
Camp Joseph T. Robinson (Camp Pike)
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2262
Eberts Field
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1184
Fort Logan H. Roots
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5807
Cleburne County Draft War
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=3637
German Americans
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=2731
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This lesson is funded in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council
Herman Davis
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=48
Oscar Franklin Miller
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5076
Marcellus Holmes Chiles
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5768
John Pruitt
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5776
John McGavock Grider
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=5277
Field Eugene Kindley
http://www.encyclopediaofarkansas.net/encyclopedia/entry-detail.aspx?entryID=1689
Activities
Activity 1. Analyze World War I era posters and make your own poster
1. Have students look at World War I era propaganda posters. An online collection of posters can
be found at http://www.learnnc.org/lp/editions/ww1posters/. Have the students discuss themes
in the posters. What are some common things in the posters? What do the posters say about
how Americans felt about the war? What kind of themes do the students think are most effective
in getting people involved in the war effort?
2. Have students read the pamphlet How to Put in Patriotic Posters the Stuff that Makes People Stop
– Look – Act! By Matlack Price and Horace Brown.
National Committee for Patriotic Societies Posters Pamphlet
3. Have students design their own posters based on the guidelines found in the pamphlet and based
on themes they have seen in other World War I era posters.
Activity 2. Analyzing a letter from an Arkansas soldier and creating “Found Poetry”
1. Have the students read the letter from Lieutenant Paul Remmel printed in the article from the
Arkansas Gazette, December 14, 1917.
Liet. Paul Remmel Writes of His Training under Fire
2. Have the students discuss the language that the author uses in the letter. What phrases or
passages are most memorable in the text? Does Remmel’s letter give a sense of what life was like
for soldiers?
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This lesson is funded in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council
3. Have students create a “Found Poem” from passages in the text. Found poetry is a type of poetry
created by taking words, phrases, and sometimes whole passages from other sources and
reframing them as poetry by making changes in spacing and lines, or by adding or deleting text,
thus imparting new meaning. Talk with the students about “Found Poetry” and give an example
(see examples and further information through the Found Poetry with Primary Sources:
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/poetry/procedure.html).
Activity 3. Analyzing a World War I songbook
1. Have students read the YMCA songbook, Songs We Like to Sing.
2. Have the students write a short one or two paragraph essay discussing why he or she thinks the
author chose those particular songs. Are there any particular themes that are repeated in each
song? Why are those themes emphasized?
Songs We Like to Sing
Activity 4. Create a Fakebook page based on primary sources
1. A Fakebook is a page that looks and acts like a Facebook page, but can be used in the classroom.
Students can create a Fakebook page based on a historical figure, entering historical events and
experiences as status updates. Templates for a Fakebook can be found online, including
http://www.classtools.net/FB/home-page
http://www.classtools.net/main_area/fakebook/helpsheet.pdf
2. Have students create a Fakebook based on the following letters of J. Harrell Burke.
Burke letter about training
Harrell Burke France letter
Burke Letter about the Armistice
Other Resources on the First World War
Carruth, Joseph. “World War I Propaganda and Its Effects in Arkansas.” Arkansas Historical Quarterly 56 (Winter
1997): 385–398.
Nieser, Tracy. “The History of Camp Pike, Arkansas.” Pulaski County Historical Review 41 (Fall 1993): 64–71.
Online exhibits from the National World War I Museum and Memorial
https://theworldwar.org/explore/exhibitions/online-exhibitions
Online exhibit about World War I propaganda posters from the Cincinnati Museum Center
https://www.cincymuseum.org/exhibits/world-war-i-propaganda-posters
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This lesson is funded in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council
Online exhibit from the Smithsonian Institution on armed conflicts in American history
http://amhistory.si.edu/militaryhistory/exhibition/flash.html
Teacher resources on World War I from the Public Broadcasting System
http://www.pbs.org/greatwar/resources/lesson.html
A daily updated World War I history website from the Guardian newspaper in the United Kingdom. Site features
reprints of World War I era newspaper articles from the Guardian’s archives
http://www.theguardian.com/world/firstworldwar
Teacher resources including worksheets and material relating to World War I
http://www.historyonthenet.com/Lessons/worksheets/ww1.htm
British Broadcasting Corporation website featuring teacher resources including worksheets and multimedia
materials relating to the 100 year anniversary of the war.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/25269805
British Library website featuring timelines, primary sources, and other teaching resources
http://www.bl.uk/world-war-one
World War I lesson plans and other teaching resources from the Library of Congress
http://www.loc.gov/teachers/classroommaterials/lessons/great-war/
Oxford University website featuring poetry from World War I, features teaching guide and primary sources
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ww1lit/
Teacher resources from the History Channel
http://www.history.com/topics/world-war-i
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This lesson is funded in part by the Arkansas Humanities Council